Study of Heart and Soul

Matthew 22:37–40 (HCSB) 37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (HCSB) 4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Leviticus 19:17–18 (HCSB) 17 “You must not harbor hatred against your brother. Rebuke your neighbor directly, and you will not incur guilt because of him. 18 Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh.

Jesus answered the expert of the law [ Pharisee] since Jesus has already answered the Sadducee’s question. The lawyer asked a detailed legal question about who is the wife in heaven if married multiple times. The expert of the Pharisees did not ask a complex, legal conundrum [a confusing and difficult problem or question] but a spiritual question. Jesus does not answer the question asked so that a debate could ensue about why did he not pick this law or that law, But Jesus combines two statements which form the basis of the entire scripture. Love others - God and others

Agape Love- was a word that was seldom used in Greek literature and then it referred to hospitality or charity. The Christians co-opted this word and gave this rare word and common usage. It is used to describe Divine love. This Christianized word was not a word relating to emotions or camaraderie, or friendship, rather, it was a volitional love. A word that was a product of the will and entailed action. God loved his creation and especially man, it was an act of His essence. He loved others because love was His essence, His attribute. God’s love was the motivation fro creation. He loved those who didn’t deserve love, who rejected him, who were unclean, it was a self-sacrificial love. It involves a denial of self. He was love. And He loved mankind. God love creates and maintains all that is. His attribute led to His creation of everything. It was His will and subsequent action that brought it about.

In the same way Christians loved God [ it is/was a willful act]. It was not because of the God’s charm, or beneficence, or gaining power. God needed nothing. But man needed everything. Man’s love involved humility of the human heart, repentance , and obedience. It demanded that one loves God and others before himself.

all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. To the OT the heart was considered the location of the emotions and the will. In the NT and the heart is the place or seat of rationa and emotional, desires, lies deep within a man, is sinful, contains the hidden character of man the seat of moral and spiritual nature, understanding, reasoning, conscience, imagination thew seat of grief, the seat of joy, affections, the “whole heart means with all that you have, no restraints=

mind. thinking it over, intellect, thoughts, faculty of thinking, mind attaches to things outside persons or other things. intelligence, insight. Involving intellectual search and understanding. faculty for knowing and understanding. judging, understanding purpose determination. spiritual enlightenment Synonym for Logos

...all your soul,

Connecting heart, mind, soul means that all of you in all ways Hebrews 8:10 (HCSB) 10 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:

I will put My laws into their minds

and write them on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be My people.